Mariah
(Minerd) Whetzel
(1855-1933)
Mariah
Jane (Minerd) Whetzel was born in Wharton Twp., Fayette County, PA, the
daughter of James and Sarah (Walters) Minerd
Sr.
On June 8, 1889, Mariah married Delmar R. Whetzel (1868 - ? ), a man 13 years younger. The marriage was one of several between the Minerds and Whetzels. Mariah's sister Mary Minerd married Delmar's brother, John "Homer" Whetzel. Also, Mariah's widowed sister in law, Harriet (Marshall) Minerd, married Delmar's brother Nelson.
The Whetzels' children were John "Homer" Whetzel, Edna Howard, Robert Whetzel and Leota Swift. Delmar also was the step-father of Mariah's first child Hazel, who married a first cousin, Elmer Maurice Whetsel/Whetzel, the son of Mary and Homer Whetzel.
Mariah
and Delmar lived at
Brownsville, Fayette County, seen here, a town along the Monongahela
River. Delmar worked as a blacksmith in local coal mines. It's said that at times,
German was spoken in their home.
Mariah and Delmar separated later in life. In June 1917, at the time his mother died, he was living in Hagerstown, MD, while she was still in Brownsville. His fate is unknown, though it's thought he died by 1920.
When the federal census was taken in 1930, Mariah resided in the household of her widowed sister in law Mary (Means) Minerd and unmarried nephews Larmer Arthur Minerd and Calvin Minerd in Bullskin Township, north of Connellsville. Living just a few doors away were Mariah's cousin Hershell Minerd and his mother, Anna (Kissinger) Minerd Collins, who were farmers.
In her last years, Mariah made her home with her married daughter Leota Swift at Nemacolin, Greene County, PA. She died there on April 11, 1933.
Mariah's grave at Redstone Cemetery near Brownsville went unmarked for many years. This all changed in 2004, when two sets of her grandchildren met for the first time in their lives, at the national Minerd-Miner-Minor Reunion. They pooled their resources, and set plans into motion that resulted in a beautiful, simple marker being installed later that year. At the top is the single word, "Grandma."
Mariah's sister Mary also is buried at Redstone.
For more information on this line, contact great-granddaughter Marilyn (Jenkins) Prinzing.
Copyright © 2000-2004 Mark A. Miner